Yesterday at JavaOne, the Apache Software Foundation announced the availability of Apache TomEE, the Java EE 6 Web Profile certified stack consisting of Apache Tomcat, Apache OpenWebBeans, Apache MyFaces, Apache ActiveMQ, Apache OpenJPA and Apache CXF. Formerly referred to as Apache Tomcat + OpenEJB, it has been renamed to Apache TomEE to signify the inclusion of the other Java EE implementations.
Apache TomEE joins other open-source Java EE implementations, such as GlassFish, JBoss and Apache Geronimo, and is one of only six certified JavaEE engines. Advantages of Apache TomEE include:
- Size: the entire Web Profile is only 24Mb
- Memory usage: very little required, and passed the TCK wtihout having to increase memory allocation from the default
- Agility: the server can go through a start/deploy/test/undeploy/stop cycle in 2-3 seconds, when run in embedded mode
- Open source implementation running on existing Apache projects
Its small size and embeddability makes it ideal for running in cloud environments, where it is often the case that there are large numbers of small systems rather than few large instances. It has alread been certified on Apache's EC2 t1.micro, m1.small and m1.large 32-bit images, with 64-bit certification a goal for the near future.
Information on Apache TomEE can be found from the Apache OpenEJB's project page at http://openejb.apache.org/. It is currently in beta release, available for immediate download.